The Witcher 3: What if everyone got together and give a game a pass for having shit gameplay?

[Deleted member 3534]

I'm at the Ugly Baby (returning to Kaer Morhen questline in Witcher 3 after 80 hours completing side-quests, doing the main story and struggling with the cycle of abuse foisted upon me by this game. For 80 hours I was dragged through my eyes and ears. This is a beautiful looking and gorgeous sounding production. The game is a treasure trove of interesting characters with genuine depth and even some of the most throw-away side quests serve to engross you in the world. I remember stumbling across some ruins and finding a monster that was tricking a group of people into thinking he was a god of some kind but really he was just a gluttonous troublemaker. The quest maybe took all of 10 minutes but is a prime example of why I hung on for as long as I did.

I can't take away the praise the game gets on these fronts. It deserves ALL the accolades it's gotten for it's story, world, characters, music, writing. All of it.

But it's complete shit on the gameplay front. Even on the hardest difficulty, the combat becomes trivial as you level up and exploit quen and use the gourmet. One could avoid breaking the game in this way but then the combat just becomes tedious and frustrating. Dodge, get a couple hits in, dodge, repeat ad infinitum. The combat is widely acknowledged to be the weakest part of the game but I think there's a much weaker component and that's the over-reliance on detective err... witcher senses.

I know it isn't an original criticism, but Jesus Fucking Christ the actual GAMEPLAY part of the quests is atrocious. I'm trying to think of a single quest that didn't involve having to follow a hard to see trail by holding down a button and stop every few steps to investigate a clue. I'm sure they're here but after 80 hours I can't remember any. And it's the reason I'm dropping playing the game and why I'm just going to watch the rest of it on YouTube.

It's hard to hold it against the game though. The nature of the dialog and story-driven quests make it difficult for me to think of another way they could have done them. Things like the Shrine Quests found in Breath of the Wild are fun but they aren't good vehicles for delivering narrative. It's hard to say how The Witcher 3 could improve because there's not much to compare it to. There's nothing else out there this ambitious. It's probably a failing on my part but I can't see The Witcher 3 improving on this aspect of its design without sacrificing a part of what makes it so special.

So yeah. I want to go on. I want to see it through to the end (and beyond). But I just don't see the gameplay improving. I think it's just going to keep getting better from a narrative sense but I'll be following footprints and scent trails up until the ending credits. So I guess I'll implore you, any recommendations for good Let's Play or story vids so I can enjoy the best parts of the game without having to suffer through another Witcher sense session?

 

[Kenzodielocke]

Because it's not fucking shit mate.

 

[Buttzerker]

Didn't bug me, made me feel like a detective in a way that was tolerable across a hundred hours of gameplay. Sorry it didn't really appeal to you though

 

[C++]

Most games are repetitive shits i dont get why would Witcher get different treatment.People are hyping so much about Dark Souls but in the end its also a loop like dodge attack dodge attack.
Only different in Souls you get more damage when you get hit thats it. And uh animations are little slower

 

[Hyun Sai]

Yeah, it's not great. But I hear GTAV is also garbage on that front and look at those sales...

 

[oni-link]

The gameplay is fine, it's just not the best the genre has to offer

If you don't like it, stop playing the game and find something you like

For ages I expected it to be crap because of everyone who eternally whines about it, and yet when I played the game, it was fine, what a shocker!

 

[PixelatedDonut]

Combat isn't even that bad......tbh it seems like a meme at this point, just like people saying GTA 5 has bad combat :eyes:

 

[Deleted member 3534]

It's not the worst it's been for the series. That's for sure. And there's worse. It's just very repetitive, doesn't feel all that good, and is very easy to cheese.

 

[Deleted member 8196]

"The Witcher 3 combat is garbage" is a hot take from ERA/GAF. People are still mad because TW3 won the GOTY at VGA over Bloodborne and they made up this rethoric to discredit the game.

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

If you're just using quen and doing a few sword strikes, getting hit and then waiting to cast quen agajn, then you are not even attempting to use he combat system properly. If you ignore the vast majority of your combat options then don't like the combat, that's pretty much on you.

Can't disagree on the overuse of Witcher senses though

 

[dlauv]

Try respeccing into a different tree and see if it helps liven the game.

Witchervision never goes away, but by 80 hours I was on the final stretch at least.

 

[NightShift]

It's completely fine. Don't watch the rest on Youtube unless you want to hate the game more though. Hearts of Stone in particular would be ruined if you're not the one playing it.

 

[Deleted member 9035]

Most games are repetitive shits i dont get why would Witcher get different treatment.People are hyping so much about Dark Souls but in the end its also a loop like dodge attack dodge attack.
Only different in Souls you get more damage when you get hit thats it. And uh animations are little slower

Click to shrink...

Which is why if you don't enjoy the game's main loop it may be not for you. There's nothing wrong with that.

 

[RalchAC]

Combat is not that good, and it's been said a lot that the game relies too much on the Witcher senses, especially on Contracts.

I don't understand why you'd want to make a thread asking everyone to fall in line with your opinion, when it's already widespread as you could see in the thread about the guy who couldn't get into Horizon and wanted to try Tw3.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

Play Dragon's Dogma - it's the better open world rpg anyways :)

 

[Deleted member 29682]

"Shit" is a strong word. It's not amazing, but it does the business.

 

[SantosStrife]

May the gameplay can become a little repetitive, but this happens in any game.

The Witcher 3 can have some flaws, sorry if you don't like, but feels wrong calling the gameplay shit.

 

[C++]

If you're just using quen and doing a few sword strikes, getting hit and then waiting to cast quen agajn, then you are not even attempting to use he combat system properly. If you ignore the vast majority of your combat options then don't like the combat, that's pretty much on you.

Click to shrink...

Not really. Game shouldn't give you arsenal and left in you open wide. It should give you clear situations about using them. Why would you use any different weapon/item etc if one strategy is working entire game. Look Arkham games and how they do with their gadgets systems.

Gameplay and enemy designs should have trigger player to use different tactics time to time . But whatever

 

[Staf]

The combat is ok. Not the best or worst in the genre. It's everything else in that game that is so damn remarkable.

 

[Deleted member 3534]

"The Witcher 3 combat is garbage" is a hot take from ERA/GAF. People are still mad because TW3 won the GOTY at VGA over Bloodborne and they made up this rethoric to discredit the game.

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I like Bloodborne but I haven't finished it. I don't have a horse in that race. My issues with the combat are VASTLY secondary to my issues with the repetitive quest design (go to location, use witcher senses, find thing/fight thing, go back to other location).

 

[Dr. Caroll]

I'm trying to think of a single quest that didn't involve having to follow a hard to see trail by holding down a button and stop every few steps to investigate a clue. I'm sure they're here but after 80 hours I can't remember any.

Click to shrink...

There's a few reasons for that. One of them is that third person games are ill suited to fiddly detective work unless they're point and click adventure titles. Suppose you need a key to unlock a door. Well, in a first person game it'd be easy to hide the key on a shelf somewhere and have the player find it. In a third person game, that isn't an option. (Key's too small, camera's too far pulled back, actually looking at things is a pain.)

Fundamentally, it's an issue of scope, more than anything else, though. The focus with TW3 was making content that was INTERESTING. The actual underlying game design of The Witcher 3 is basically identical to Dragon Age: Inquisition. But they've tried to solve the problem of dull fetch quests by making each fetch quest something narratively interesting.

 

[Deleted member 41271]

To be honest, I don't think the story is great, either. I'd call it mediocre, and the gameplay poor. After experiencing Divinity and Pillars of Eternity, it felt like such a downgrade, RP wise. And Divinity isn't even trying to tell a great story.

"The Witcher 3 combat is garbage" is a hot take from ERA/GAF. People are still mad because TW3 won the GOTY at VGA over Bloodborne and they made up this rethoric to discredit the game.

Click to shrink...

Gamers are so tribal, it'd be adorable if it wasn't so sad. That you need to rationalize "people like game I like less than me" with "it's actually a conspiracy because they like Y game more" is just...

...well, it's Gamers gonna Gamer alright. Just learn that other people have different tastes. 9 times out of 10, those tastes have little to do with silly conspiracy theories.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

This again?

 

[Haze]

Most games are repetitive shits i dont get why would Witcher get different treatment.People are hyping so much about Dark Souls but in the end its also a loop like dodge attack dodge attack.
Only different in Souls you get more damage when you get hit thats it. And uh animations are little slower

Click to shrink...

I mean, except Dark Souls is constantly engaging and rarely repetitive and a hell of a lot more nuanced.

Witcher 3's combat isn't good but I wouldn't call it shit either. It's serviceable.

 

[Deleted member 11038]

To me combat is not shit, it's just ok. Also people saying side quests in Witcher 3 reduce to following the trails with witcher senses are wrong because that is mostly for contracts, but actual side quests are a lot more than that.

 

[C++]

Play Dragon's Dogma - it's the better open world rpg anyways :)

Click to shrink...

Combat is great but it doesnt make game "better". Animations,face models, enviromental graphics,missions and how repetitive they are,story and side quests, nothing to do beside them are all making DDogma mediocre game at best.

Just designing a combat system not making a game great.

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

Not really. Game shouldn't give you arsenal and left in you open wide. It should give you clear situations about using them. Why would you use any different weapon/item etc if one strategy is working entire game. Look Arkham games and how they do with their gadgets systems.

Gameplay and enemy designs should have trigger player to use different tactics time to time . But whatever

Click to shrink...

Yes, really. You can technically get through the game just using quen and sword strikes, but it's inefficient to say the least. If people don't want to experiment with anything else, which often will make it quicker to dispatch enemies, that's on you.

The batman example is silly. If you need an enemy to be immune to everything except fire (ala arkhams enemy variations), before you can even consider using the fire sign, which would have been nore effective in a lot of situations, that mistake is still on you.

 

[jawzpause]

Completely agree, the combat is so bad that i couldn't continue playing the game after 15ish hours forcing myself to play. The combat in witcher 3 makes assassin's creed combat look good. I'm not sure what it is with western rpg games, they get literally everything right except for the combat, and for me this is the most important thing.

As i said in another thread, it's a real shame with the Witcher 3 because i see all the praise this game gets on here but i just can't get into it. Every other game that gets the same level of praise on these forums i usually enjoy too. I just don't understand how all the reviewers of this game seem to give the combat a pass? Ye the story is great ye the writing and characters and graphics are great but if the combat is trash that all means nothing to me.

 

[Viceratops]

I've restarted The Witcher 3 4 or 5 times now. I've never gotten past the first 15 hours (that was one time, usually it's 3 or 4 hours) of the story. My longest attempt was on Death March and that was definitely the most fun save I had. But I hate the traversal, the map irks me, and the combat is not good. I hate how incapable Roach is of getting past very minor obstacles. It should have been my favorite game ever, it's a giant open world with lots to do, the voice acting is great, and the writing is stellar. I like the alchemy aspect too. But it's an ugly aesthetic for a world. Those armor sets aren't fun or rewarding, and again, it's just unfun to go anywhere in that world because of how overly animated the running animations are and the fact that your main long distance traversal gets stuck on everything. I hate getting stuck in games and The Witcher 3 made it happen more than a shooter in the mid 2000s.

 

[Cecil]

This whole "it's objectively true that TW3 has shit gameplay" needs to stop. It's dumb and annoying.

I for one like the combat. When it comes to battling several enemies at once, it's one of my favorite in the genre, and I like the strategies using signs and alchemy, and I like the way the games gives opportunities to prepare and read up on enemies for the witcher contracts and other encounters.

The main culprit when it's bad is the camera, that doesn't work when you fight in tight spaces. There's an actual flaw in the game. And I find the death animation to be jarring and annoying. But other then that, I'm enjoying playing combat sequences in this game, and I did the repetitive bandit camp encounters just because they were fun, when you had 10-12 bandits at once to just wreck havoc on when you had mastered different techniques,

As for the quest design, they have a repetive gameplay in a design, but utilizes the best aspects fo the game - being able to prepare for certain enemies, and having a great deal of choice in them. And that's why so many of us like them.

That the witcher sense mechanic is a bit overused, sure, it kinda is. But it's still preferable to what other games does with similiar highlight objects-mechanics. I really don't think it's another argument for that "everyone gives it a pass for having shit gameplay".

If you don't like it, fine. But stop this nonsense that everyone who doesn't scream this on the internet at every opportunity are lying to themselves.

 

[misho8723]

Well, this is probably surprising or even shocking for you, but most people outside of this site don't have a (serious) problem(s) with the gameplay in TW3

 

[Minilla]

"The Witcher 3 combat is garbage" is a hot take from ERA/GAF. People are still mad because TW3 won the GOTY at VGA over Bloodborne and they made up this rethoric to discredit the game.

Click to shrink...

LOL, I mean I suppose gameplay is entirely down to the to the individual .

But I have to give a hearty LMAO for the Bloodborne W3 combat comparison .

Many people say W3 combat is trash . Not just forums

 

[Don Draper's Hat]

Sorry, is this title about The Witcher 3 or the Last of Us/Uncharted games?

Spoiler

joke

The Witcher may not have the best combat in the history of gaming but to call it shit is absolutely hilarious. Honestly, I'm amazed that this always gets so much stick for its combat but Breath of the Wild gets no hate on that front, and that, in my opinion, is much worse.

 

[traillaitor]

Trying to think of a game that doesn't have a "repetitive gameplay loop", like that's the basis of the game. You like the loop, you like the game. You don't like the loop, you don't like the game. Doesn't make it shit.

 

[Xiao Hu]

Oh for fuck's sake, enjoyment of gameplay can be highly subjective. Stop pushing your personal experience as the only legitimate narrative about Witcher 3

 

[Klyka]

I never finished the game. After about 50 hours or so, it just felt like an endless slog and I couldn't go on anymore.
I'm glad the game is a masterpiece to a lot of people, to me it was just some open world RPG with samey, simple combat and some nice voice acting.

 

[Pantaghana]

I would never say Witcher 3 has great combat, just like I would never say it's garbage. Found it to be serviceable for the most part and it was certainly not the reason that kept me playing.

 

[HMS_Pinafore]

Damn, OP is getting piled on...

 

[catboy]

whew op

 

[Lukemia SL]

Yeah the combat is shit, onr day people will come back to the game and realise it.
Was even worse when I was playing Bloodborne back to back.

 

[catboy]

literally the quest design is speak to npc, hold L2 to follow the piss trail, pick up item or fight thing, go back to npc

coupled with weird clunky movement that is serving rockstar but doesn't animate well enough to justify the feeling

 

[Ravelle]

Just set the difficulty to easy if you're having trouble with it, it took a bit to get used to and I didn't brother me that much with the exception of fighting those ghost bitches.

 

[KrigareN-]

The gameplay was serviceable. It's an incredible package all in all.

 

[Cecil]

Damn, OP is getting piled on...

Click to shrink...

When you write the thread title like this, you're kinda asking for it.

 

[wallweasels]

Ultimately the core action isn't stellar by any means. Overall you hit the peak of what you are going to be doing combat-wise quite quickly and it doesn't evolve much from there. The game stands, mostly, on it's fairly well presented content.

But many games have had weak elements in it that are overshadowed by it's strongest ones. Psychonauts gameplay and combat is hardly the best. But the levels, design, storytelling and comedy all make it a pretty great game. I mean Planescape Torment is remembered as an amazing game, but is built upon exceptionally bland combat. Meanwhile I would hardly play Doom 2016 for it's story...but the combat is exceptionally fun.

 

[Zem]

I actually like the combat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The mixture of melee, potions and spells was fun.

Witcher vision was used too much in quests possibly but the main problem with it was the visual side, playing the game on PS4 was definitely worse than PC where I modded that whole thing out.

 

[Deleted member 8106]

The gameplay was goot to me. Not too easy, not too complicated, but I guess when people demand all games to have a "Souls-like" combat, everything will disappoint them.

 

[zeox]

everything is either terrible or incredible these days. I enjoyed the combat for what it was ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[KLoWn]

Every time someone says that The Witcher 3 gameplay is "fuckin garbage" I know I can safely assume from that point on that most opinions from that person is going to be hyperbole bullshit.

 

[Yossarian]

"The Witcher 3 combat is garbage" is a hot take from ERA/GAF. People are still mad because TW3 won the GOTY at VGA over Bloodborne and they made up this rethoric to discredit the game.

Click to shrink...

Isn't this the very definition of a 'hot take'...? :D

everything is either terrible or incredible these days.

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